On the Romnibus: Grand Blanc High School Assembly

The good news is that Romney attracted at crowd of almost 3,000 here today, about twice the size of McCain's largest recent rally. The bad news: they were mostly under the age of eighteen.

The ratio of potential voters to teenagers was, by a rough estimate, about 30 to one one to thirty. As a reporter sitting next to me said, "He'd have more voters if he went to a diner."

I asked one of the students if they had a choice about coming to the assembly. "No, it was mandatory," she said. I asked what she thought of the presentation (which was basically his standard stump speech -- complete with references to Dan Jansen and the 1980 Olympic hockey team! -- plus "say no to drugs"), and she said, "It got us out of class." I'm not using her name because her teacher was standing about five feet away. (UPDATE: Oops: You're right, the distance wasn't the factor, just not wanting to appear like a slacker in the national media.)

Our next stop is the Detroit Economic Club, for his much anticipated economic policy speech. (See below.)